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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-03-11, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1987. PAGE 5. McGowan family built a neighbourhood The original George McGowan homestead is depicted in this 1879 . drawing as the architect wished it to be, not as it ever actually was. The “big stone house’’ is now owned by Brian and Beverley Walden. Memories BY TOBY RAINEY All ground is hallowed, and all land reeks of history; but few acres in North Huron hold as much continuous history as the trrfct in East Wawanosh Township still known by many as the “McGowan Settlement.” Situated along Concession 2-3 and the first sideroad west of what is now Highway 4, a thousand acres of prime farmland was “taken up” by five young McGowan brothers and their uncle, all sturdy Scots who came to homestead in the new township soon after it was opened for settlement, purchasing land from the Queen for about $2 an acre. Walter McGowan, then 21, and his brother, Gregor, then 18, were the first to arrive in 1852, having left the family farm in Halton County, near Milton, to seek their fortunes in a new land. They left behind them seven younger broth­ ers and sisters, as well as their parents, Robert and Mary McGow­ an, who had emigrated from Perthshire, Scotland, in 1826. Each youth purchased 200 acres, side by side, and proceeded to hew homes from the heavy, virgin timber still covering most of the 85,000 acres of the “Wawanosh,” named after one of the Huron chiefs whose name was signed to the treaty renouncing all title to the land, “in consideration of 1,100 pounds sterling per annum as long as grass grows and water runs,” In a letter dated October 18, 1952, Robert McGowan wrote to his absent sons, bringing them up to date on family news, and offering some fatherly advice: “I hope you will not get into that bad custom of wandering about on the Sabbath Day. If you have no place to go to hear a sermon, I hope you will stop in your shanty and read your Bible.” By the time this letter was mailed, Robert McGowan’s broth­ er, also named Walter, had emigrated from Perthshire and had also taken up 100 acres in Wawanosh, right next to his nephew, Gregor’s, farm. How­ ever, since this Walter only lived six years after his arrival, the land was registered in the name of his son, George. George was still only a child, but the only man in the family. In a second letter, dated Febru­ ary 25, 1853, and mailed to his “Old Friend John” back in Perthshire, Robert says that “two of my boys started away to the West on February 8,1853, with the remainder of Walter’s luggage.” (These two remarkable letters are still in the possession of Clare and Ida McGowan, granddaughters of the first Walter to settle in Wawanosh, and now' retired in Goderich. More of them later.) Although it is not known which of the remaining McGowan sons left thefamilyfarm in Halton Co. to make the four-day journey through the bush to join their brothers at that time, one has to wonder how old they were, if their elder, Gregor, was only 18 in 1852. It is known, however, that over the next few years, the three remaining brothers took up land in the fast-growing “McGowan Set­ tlement,” with the land registry mapofEastWawanoshin 1867(the year after the territory had been divided into East and West Wawanosh, andthesame year that Canada became a Dominion) show­ ing 200 acres registered to George, 200 acres to James, and 100 acres to Robert, who was named after his father. (Every generation of Mc­ Gowans, up to the present, has a ‘ ‘ Robert, ” in deference to the clan patriarch.) The same map shows Uncle Walter’s farm registered to “Jane McGowan,” althoughitisnot clear where Jane came into the family, since history says the land was registered to George McGowan, the small child left fatherless by Walter’s death in 1858. In 1873, Robert and Mary McGowan sold their farm in Halton and joined the five boys in East Wawanosh. Since Robert was by then 75 years old, and Mary 70, they lived with their eldest son, Walter, who had married Rebecca Cumming in 1854, and had seven children, four of whom survived. One of these was Daniel, who later took over the eastern portion of the homestead - the father of Clare and Ida McGowan mentioned pre­ viously. The parents lived on the farm for a few years, then moved to the village of Blyth, where “they enjoyed a few years of peace,” before passing away. Robert died in 1881, Mary in 1888 - both are buried in Blyth’s Union Cemetery under a common stone, noting proudly that they were “Natives of Scotland.” It is at this point that the family history both narrows and expands, as far as we were able to research it. It narrows as far as the lives of James, George, Robert, Jr. and Gregor go, although we know that Gregor was killed by a team of runaway horses in 1897, when he was 63 years old. By then he doubtless had a grown family, but we were unable to trace any of them at this time. But the family history also expands dramatically at this point, for tworeasons. Thefirst is that Clare and Ida McGowan, now both in their 80’s, have keen minds and a remarkable sense of history, and are able to tell first-hand of their lives and memories as members of the famous McGowan clan ofwhich they were so vital a part. The second reason is evident in an astounding series of scrap­ books, started around the turn of the century by Maggie Murdock, the wife of Robert C. McGowan, a brother of Daniel, who was Clare andlda’sfather. RobertC. took over the western lot of his father’s 200 acres, next door to Daniel’s farm, and the two brothers remain­ ed close partners and friends all their lives. These scrapbooks were passed down from Maggie to the youngest of her four daughters, Edna, the only one who remained at home until she met and married George Charter on May 17,1930. Accord­ ing to the clippings, the current Walter McGowan was grooms­ man, while 23-year-old cousin Ida sang the solo. George and Edna Charter had three children - Mildred (now Mrs. Eugene McAdam of Clinton), Gordon, and Robert C., who was named for his grandfather, in keeping with the family tradition. And with Robert Charter the history of the clan comes full circle: he and his wife Donelda and two daughters, Beth and Lori, live on the original farm owned by his grandfather, the western lot home­ steaded by his grandfather, Wal­ ter, in 1852. Thus, Robert Charter is the only blood relative of the McGowan clan still to own Mc­ Gowan land; although -since his blood came down through his mother’s side of the family - the name McGowan no longer appears on any deed. As well as still owning half of the 200 acres taken up by the 21-year-old Walter 135 years ago, Mr. Charter has also been able to acquire the 200 acres across Concession 2-3 that was originally owned by George McGowan, as well as 50 acres of the original James McGowan lot; as aresult, he can lay claim to 350 acres of the original 1,000 homesteaded by the family in the later half of the 19th century. The scrapbrooks which docu­ ment the joys and sorrows of Mr, Charter’s forefathers are still carefully kept, now owned by Mildred McAdam, the only daugh­ ter in the family. Reading through the lovingly saved collection of newspaper clippings in their home-made scrapbooks is like both a fascinating study of pioneer life and a mystery story. Few of the clippings are dated, so it requires much cross-referencing to other tid bits of history to learn just which McGowan appears in some of the stories, but on the whole the entire history of this intriguing branch of the family is recorded, through such items as the notices of births, wedding and deaths that form a lifetime, as well as in news items about family and friends who accomplished things both great and small, social occasions, church and school history, and a great many poems and anecdotes saved just because Maggie McGowan and her successor loved them. Through all of these, we get a very accurate picture of the family who were pillars of their society, stern and devout Presbyterians, and eager seekers of education (the family built the first school in the settlement, East Wawanosh S.S. 10 - still standing in nearly the same position, and now used to house Aubrey Toll’s Clydesdales. As well, the McGowan’s were among the founders of the first church in the nearby village of Blyth, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, built of logs on what is now Dinsley Street, and later replaced by a handsome brick building. A thousand other stories crowd to mind after reading the history in these priceless documents, and in other publications still available, including the history of “East Wawanosh Township, 1867- 1967, ” and in both the 1879 and 1984 Huron County Atlases, avail­ able at the county library and at some branch libraries. As well, our mind reels with the richness of the tapestry of life woven by the memories of the McGowan family members still in the area, but space restraints demand that much of this must be passed over for the present. Robert and Donelda Charter are among the most eloquent of the clan, of course, as are the brilliant sisters, Clare and Ida McGowan in God­ erich. Luella McGowan, now living in Blyth, the widow of George McGowan, who was in turn the grandson of the original George who took up land in the McGowan Settlement so many years ago, is also a great source of McGowan history, supplyinganecdotes of family life in the 1920’s, when she and George were married and moved back to the old homestead. Ken McGowan, a second cousin of Luella’s George, still lives in Blyth with his mother, Ella Carter; while Finlay McGowan, George’s cousin, is in retirement in London. Duty free - so what? BY RAYMOND CANON Canadians are a paripatetic bunch. They use the cold winters as an excuse to go almost anywhere as long as it is in a warmer climate and, unfortunately for the econo­ mic health of the country, they seem to think that it is one of the rights guaranteed under the Bill of Rights. It most assuredly is not, rather it is a privilege but, regardless of what it is, it results in about a two billion dollar deficit in our Balance of Payments. That is, however, another story. What I would like to look at this time around is the question of the goods which you bring back into the country after one of these jaunts. There seems to be a considerable amount of confusion with one of the most frequent incidents being the general belief that, just because you see a sign that says “DUTY FREE” these words mean that you do not have to pay any taxes whatsoever on the commodity when you bring it back into Canada. The organizations that use this gimmick do not raise a finger to tell you the true situation so allow me to do just that. When I am finished, I hope that you will be in possession of a complete knowledge of Canadian tariff regulations. You noticed that I used the word tariff to describe the practice. That is a good place to start since the word tariff signifies any tax paid on an imported good. Tariffs are subdivided into three categories - duties, sales taxes and excise taxes. Any commodity can have no tariffs at all on it, others a duty but no taxes and still others havebothadutyandatax. Let’s take the hypothetical example of importing a watch from Switzer­ land to see just how the system works. For the sake of argument, let’s say the watch costs $100. First of all, we have to take the costof the watch in Switzerland and translate that into Canadian dollars since our tariffs are always calculated in that currency. Let us assume that it is subject to a duty, a sales tax and an excise tax. The duty is 20 per cent, the sales tax 12 per cent and the excuse tax 10 per cent. The calculation of the duty is simple; it is calculated on the cost of the watch and that works out to $20.00. This is added to the cost of the watch to produce a “duty paid value” of $120. Now comes the interesting part. Both of the remaining taxes are calculated not on the original cost ($100) but on the duty paid value ($120). This means that the sales tax works out to $14.40 while the excise tax is calculated to be $12. All this results in a total tariff being paid of $46.40 or almost half the price of the watch. Since such a watch is likely to sell for $300 in Ontario, the purchase of such a watch results in a Retail Sales Tax of$21 sothatwhenbothgovern- ments have got their cut, they have benefitted tothe tune of $67.40. Not bad! All tariffs are collected by the federal government; the provincial government gets into the act only when the article is sold at the retail level. The amount of the tariff depends on which country it comes from and there are no less than three categories with, of course, a number of exceptions. However, the point I want to make here and I think you may realize it already is that the expression “Duty Free” does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that there are no taxes on the item whatsoever, only that the duty has been removed. This means that “Duty Free Shops” are frequently not the origin of as many bargains as you might think. In fact, given the vagaries of modern- day exchange rates, you could end up paying as much in such a shop as you would when you got home. To cite one rather bizarre example, you may save money by buying an item at a duty free shop at Toronto Airport, take it with you and then bring it back with you when you come. This is possible simply because the best bargain a specific item may be in Canada itself but you can’t take advantage of it unless you fly out of the country. “Let the Buyer Beware” is good advice, it seems, even when you are shopping at a Duty Free Store. Remember what 1 have told you the next time that you find yourself in one.